Flexible File Correction - pay period dates

Sometimes payroll software can produce pay period dates that the pension provider can't accept. PensionSync Automatic Date Matching automatically corrects many of these, but there are some scenarios which can't be automatically corrected.

For example, if the pay period dates given in the file are the wrong length (e.g. 25 days, when it should be a month) this can cause a validation error. This sometimes happens in IRIS Payroll Professional, for example, if the payroll run date changes between pay runs, and it can be very difficult to fix in the current pay run, so it is useful to be able to edit the file quickly and easily. 

There are two pairs of dates to edit in the file - please ensure you update both of them so they match each other:

• PayPeriodStartDate and PayPeriodEndDate (columns F and G)
• PayReferenceStartDate and PayReferenceEndDate (columns AZ and BA)

In the example, the End Dates have been set to 25th April by the payroll software, but the pension provider is expecting a submission for the calendar month of April. Changing the End Dates from 25/04/2021 to 30/04/2021 will fix this and allow the file to go through. 

Will the date formats get messed up with I save the file? 

No. PensionSync is designed to accept date formats used by Excel, so you won't get date format errors when uploading your CSV files. 

*Please note* If a file is opened in Excel format it can cause any leading zeros to fall off the Group ID, (so 001 becomes 1). In order to prevent this, change the format of the column to 'Text' which will ensure leading zeros remain.